You Should Get Ready – ‘Karma’ By Jedward Is A Cathartic Shout Out At The Negative Influences In Our Lives

If in your life you ever come up against people who seemingly set out to deliberately squash your dreams, then Jedward’s newest release, ‘Karma’, is the song for you. Even if you can’t relate to that particular experience, then the song is still a catchy bop and well worth listening to.

Dublin duo John and Edward Grimes, known professionally as Jedward, are going through their unreleased catalogue of songs and putting them out one per week, ahead of the ultimate release of their fourth album, set for early 2019. Last Friday we had ‘Perfect Wonderland‘, a firm fan favourite which they’ve performed at live shows for a number of years now, but had never before released a studio version. Today we have ‘Karma’, an anthemic hit “punchy” song, which is a call back to all the people who’ve said a baselessly negative thing or two. If there’s anyone in entertainment who knows anything about being on the receiving end of negative comments, it’s Jedward.

‘Karma’, at just under four minutes long, is another synth based track, along the lines of previous release, ‘Perfect Wonderland’. Unlike that song however, this is strong and hard hitting from the get go, with John punching out the lyrics of the first chorus as if he’s thinking of everyone who’s ever hurt him; soon Edward joins him with equal passion. It would be easy to point fingers at who it might be about, but the twins stress it’s not about anyone in particular, but rather, it’s,

“an empowering edgy pop song we created for anyone that’s been through something and can relate to the lyrics! Because we have had so much happen to us and we wanted to share these feelings in a song.”

The song is multi-layered instrumentally, and therefore best listened with the volume set to 11, or through earphones. As with their previous self-penned releases, it’s easy to distinguish the separate voices of the twins, John’s slightly more breathy, while Edward’s contains slightly more vibrato. Their vocals complement each other perfectly, as they should, given they’re not just siblings, but twins.

At first listen we felt a little saddened that John and Edward have had to go through the experiences which have shaped this song; a few more listens and we realise just how cathartic this has been, to put it all down in words, and even more so, to release it to the wider public. The lyrics are raw and emotive, and spat out with not so much venom as confusion as to why they’ve been up against so much. Speaking last night on Instagram, the Dublin duo described how they are always writing down their thoughts, and turning them into poems and songs. This constant practice shines through in their lyrics:

All you do is criticise
you’re only a pain
in the neck
All you do is spit insults
Why make people
Feel bad

you should get ready
cuz the days gonna come
when all the things you did
get chucked in your face
I said you should get ready
cuz the days gonna come
when all the things you did
get chucked in your face

‘Perfect Wonderland’ was written back in 2014, and it seems this song also dates from the same period. There’s a lot of similarities between this and another track, ‘Ferocious’, which was released in October 2014. You get the feeling that Jedward would never wish ill on another person – as in the lyrics, they don’t seek revenge – but if the people who’ve done bad by them get their comeuppance they won’t be too upset about it: “Cause somewhere down the line karma’s gonna find you”.

If you’re surprised at Jedward’s prolific output – ‘Karma’ is the 11th track they’ve released since breaking free as independent artists in 2014 – then you’re in for a treat, as they’ve promised that next Friday will see the release of ‘Golden Years’, another from the same writing period. Additionally, they’ve promised to put out ‘Silent Raindrops’ (an absolute banger when it’s been performed live) for Christmas. It all bodes well for album number 4: written during the past year, and recorded in Los Angeles, the album’s release may well co-incide with the last of these “golden oldies”.